Big Publishers

These are the titans of sound effect vendoring. All of them provide sound effect libraries with at least 20,000 sfx on a hard drive. If you’re making a bigger investment they are the companies to turn to.

Ric Viers founded Blastwave FX in 2007. Besides their flagship Sonopedia 2.0 with over 30,000 royalty free sound effects they also have smaller power packs, HD production elements and 5.1 sounds. If you buy one of the Sound Design Solution Hard Drives they include the Blastwave FX search engine and free updates for life.

Hollywood Edge has a huge library of sound effects. They provide everything from hard drive collections, including the Edge Collection with more than 60,000 sound effects, to single cd’s. Hollywood Edge does not offer downloadable files. Neither is there an about page or FAQ to be found on the site.

Shockwave Sound offers a large and varied selection of sound effects and music. Shockwave Sound allows for à la carte purchasing of downloadable sound effects as well as pre-packed bundles for a discounted rate. A Help/FAQ page is available to help understand licensing.

Sound Ideas has been around since 1978 and is the world’s largest publisher for sound effects for media. In fact, their library is so popular that some of their sounds has been overused and is well known among sound designers. But if you want the largest collection of sound effects on a hard drive, this is the place to go. Sound Ideas Ultimate Sound Effects Collection boasts over 130,000 sound effects on one hard drive. You can’t download sound effects from their site, instead the assets are delivered on CD, DVD or hard drive.

Sounddogs is among the veterans when it comes to dealing sound effects. With over half a million files available for immediate download they certainly have enough to choose from. Naturally they also provide CD’s, DVD’s and hard drives as well. Perhaps the Soundstorm Library with over 50,000 sound effects is something for you?

The team at Soundrangers have been creating sound effects and music for decades. At the site you’ll find individial sound effects available for instant download, soundpacks and hard drive collections with 10,000 or 21,000 sound effecs.